Menu

It is well known that straight out of the box Photoshop is capable of an amazing amount of things, but mastering some effects are considerably harder than others. These days you do not have to be a Photoshop pro in order to complete some of the harder projects and achieve the more elaborate effects. While it is optimal to learn how to use Photoshop to its fullest potential to get the most stunning results, sometimes it is smarter and quicker to use 3rd party plug-ins.

I have compiled a list of free and commercial plug-ins to supercharge Photoshop. Each of these will speed up your work, reduce the number of steps needed and help you create amazing effects. Some of them will help you even develop effects otherwise not possible in Photoshop.

Automatically whitens and brightens teeth. PearlyWhites can also whiten the sclera of the eye because it looks for white elements surrounded by flesh tones. It supports batch image processing for editing many images at once.

This Photoshop plug-in turns Photoshop into a digital darkroom for black and white. Use the light sensitivity of films (Tri-X, etc) for exact grayscale conversion and contrast editing. Multigrade, exposure stops and colored lens-filters have been copied in this digital darkroom.

Version control system designed specifically for Adobe Photoshop files. Whenever you feel you have done something worth saving, just click a magic button on the Timeline palette in Photoshop, and your file is saved as a version on the PixelNovel server.

This plug in bridges the sometimes large gap between Web design and development by creating Web pages directly from Photoshop. Type layers are automatically converted into CSS and the image layers are converted to compressed graphics, while the HTML code is generated to display images on the website exactly where you positioned them in Photoshop.

Fractalius automatically creates unusual, eccentric artworks in a single step all based off your original images. You can also simulate various types of exotic lighting and highly realistic pencil sketches.

Bokeh is the only software that accurately simulates the distinctive blurring and creamy highlights of real lenses. Bokeh can draw attention to your subject by manipulating focus and depth of field after the shot has been taken.

The KODAK DIGITAL ROC Plug-In, for ADOBE PHOTOSHOP and compatible programs, automatically correct, restore, and balance the color of digital images. This professional version has the ability to control image contrast and brightness in addition to color, and it supports the use of 16 bit color images.

Portrait retouching plug-in. It smooths and removes imperfections, while preserving important portrait details such as skin texture, hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, etc. A unique feature is that it allows selective smoothening for only the skin tone areas of the image.

Plug-in for uploading photos to Flickr inside of Photoshop. You can automatically resize photos, choose image formats and adjust image quality. Gives you the ability to add titles, descriptions and tags, along with setting visibility settings for public, family and friends.

Genuine Fractals 6 plugin for Photoshop is able to increase image size well over 1000% without the loss of sharpness or detail that you would normally expect. It allows you to enlarge an image to any size or resolution you desire while maintaining fine image detail and eliminate edge halos.

This filter pack is been around for quite a long time. These Photoshop Plug-In Filters provide the user with a base of very simple effects that can be handy on a regular basis for Graphic art. These simple filters or combination of filters can be used to create many awesome effects.

Long a personal favorite of mine, the Eye Candy 5 bundle includes the products Impact, Nature, and Textures, each containing 10 beautiful and realistic effects. Impact is what made Alien Skin Software famous, with effects particularly useful for text and logos, such as Chrome, Glass, Bevel, Glow, and Perspective Shadow.

This plugin improves digital images by rebuilding color detail, sharpness and image vibrancy. AutoEye uses a different set of adjustment methods than Photoshop or other image editing applications. AutoEye doesn’t use standard curves and histograms to adjust images on a global basis within the RGB or CMYK color space.

Suite of professional software for adding edges, frames and borders to enhance your photos. New version includes film frames, darkroom effects, grunge edges, natural media borders, and dozens of other new styles with over a thousand pieces of new creative content.

With the Backdrop designer plug-in, you can transport people and objects into scenes from professional photo shoots from the comfort of your desktop. This plugin creates beautiful resolution-independent backdrops, very similar to those expensive muslin drapes you may currently have in your photography studio.

Create realistic selective focus, depth-of-field and vignette effects with this Photoshop plugin. Including many filters like intuitive FocusBug controller it is just like using a tilt-shift or selective focus lens right inside of Adobe Photoshop.

Image-processing software that can be used to quickly and easily give beautiful artistic effects to your images.

LucisArt 3 comes in two versions:

Version ED provides greatly increased ability to fine-tune how you enhance detail. LucisArt 2 had 12 settings to enhance detail (7 settings for the effect Exposure and 5 settings for the effect Whyeth).

Version SE gives you the LucisArt 2 Special Effects Winslow, Sculpture, and Plaid. Winslow is a watercolor effect, Sculpture enhances contrast patterns in the image, and Plaid also enhances contrast patterns but adds texture (radial lines).

Topaz Vivacity is a set of powerful Adobe Photoshop Plug-Ins that improve the quality of images. Plug-ins give you the ability to resize jpgs, sharpen images and enhance details without losing image quality.

Filters are the leading photographic filters for digital photography. This plugin gives you control over color, light and tonality in your images and lets you create unique enhancements with professional results.